Remeslo's change of heart about the situation in the country has caused misunderstanding among Alaudinovs.

The head of the Akhmat special forces, Apti Alaudinov, called blogger Ilya Remeslo, who published a series of posts today criticizing the government. Remeslo confirmed that he had not been hacked. Alaudinov suggested checking to see if the blogger was being held hostage.

As reported by the "Caucasian Knot," some Z-bloggers are conspiratorial enemies of Russia or unknowingly serve its interests by criticizing Akhmat, unit commander Apti Alaudinov stated on November 14, 2025. He promised to destroy such Z-bloggers "legally through criminal prosecution" if they do not apologize. On the same day, the Gelendzhik City Court fined Oksana Kobeleva, the author of the Telegram channel "Security in a Vatnik," 30,000 rubles for publishing questions to the commander of the Akhmat special forces, Apti Alaudinov, although she later deleted the post and repented for this material. On November 13, Alaudinov announced a reconciliation between two other Z-bloggers, Ilya Remeslo and Vladimir Grubnik - the latter, a friend of Akhmat, complained to the Chechens about criticism from Remeslo. The conflict between Remeslo and Grubnik arose due to the attitude towards pro-Putin Ukrainian defectors in the Z-community.

On the night of March 17-18, blogger Ilya Remeslo published a post on his Telegram channel titled "Five Reasons I Stopped Supporting Vladimir Putin." Among the reasons he cited were the SVO in Ukraine, internet and messaging blockades, the lack of a change in power, and the lack of dialogue with society. Remeslo then recorded a video message to confirm that he hadn't been hacked.

The next morning, he continued writing critical posts, specifically touching on the Russian government's penchant for luxury and promising to elaborate on his cooperation with the presidential administration on the fight against the opposition.

Apti Alaudinov, head of the Akhmat special forces, responded to Remeslo's statement.

"Previously, Remeslo was a completely adequate, pro-Russian, pro-presidential person with extensive connections in the security services and the presidential administration. He was the main initiator of Navalny's arrest. Well, in short, the topic is that the person, in my understanding, was absolutely pro-Russian. Of course, what he's doing now is simply terrible. Unless he's being held hostage somewhere or something," Alaudinov stated today on his Telegram channel.

The head of the Akhmat special forces said he called Remeslo today because he assumed the blogger had been hacked. However, Remeslo explained that there had been no hacking and had changed his mind. "I knew someone would destabilize the country. I knew preparations were underway to destabilize the country at this time. Of course, I didn't know that Ilya Remeslo could do it. A man who seemed completely sane to me," Alaudinov noted.

Ilya Remeslo, a native of Nalchik, graduated from St. Petersburg State University with a law degree. He was a member of the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation from 2017 to 2020, according to the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation website.

* Alexei Navalny was added to the Rosfinmonitoring list of extremists and terrorists and was sentenced to 19 years in prison on extremism charges. He died in prison in February 2024. Navalny has been recognized as a "prisoner of conscience." The Caucasian Knot article "Navalny: The Caucasian Dimension" outlines the opposition leader's views on issues related to the Caucasus.

** Meta (which owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp) is banned in Russia.